Revitalizing Southeastern Communities Chicago, IL Demonstrates National Brownfields Leadership Under the leadership of Mayor Richard Daley, the City of Chicago, Illinois has established one of the nation's most successful brownfields redevelopment programs. Chicago established its brownfields initiative in 1993, built on a strategy of linking environmental restoration with industrial real estate development to create jobs and generate tax revenue. By early 1999, Chicago had cleaned up or overseen the remediation of 333 brownfield properties covering more than 50 acres. By 2004, the City had leveraged more than $70 million for its brownfields program from federal and other sources. Brownfields Forum Provides Leadership The City owes much of its success to the work of the Brownfields Forum, convened in 1994 with the support of the John D. and Catherine T, MacArthur Foundation. More than 100 business leaders, manufacturers, environmentalists, bankers, regulators, civic organization leaders, and city officials participated in the forum's meetings to develop recommendations and an action plan for brownfields redevelopment. In 1995, the Forum published its findings, identifying more than 60 barriers to brownfield site reuse. The Brownfields Forum officially agreed to 63 recommendations for overcoming these barriers and formed nine project teams to implement them. Chicago officials acted on many of the forum's recommendations, including enacting a property tax incentive, encouraging local banks to develop and use a model lending package, and implementing land acquisition tools for brownfield sites. The City also created an interdepartmental team of project managers from the Chicago Departments of Environment, Planning and Development, and Law, which built solid working relationships among themselves and with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), HUD, and the EPA Region 5 staff. The City also created special designations such as model industrial corridors, manufacturing districts, and tax increment financing (TIF) districts to spark reuse in targeted areas. Chicago's Team Approach A multidisciplinary team manages Chicago's brownfields process, beginning with an evaluation of sites for inclusion based on site access and control, estimated cleanup costs, and real estate marketability. The team includes representatives from the: Office of the Mayor to provide overall guidance and coordination; Office of Budget and Management to assist with financial management, oversight of spending, and regulatory compliance; Chicago Department of Environment to contribute technical expertise; ------- Department of Planning and Development to market sites to potential end users and manage various financial and economic development tools to support redevelopment; and Department of Law, which can sue polluters for cost recovery, offer real estate transaction support, and negotiate redevelopment agreements with prospective owners, as well as administer the environmental and garbage liens that address public nuisances associated with many brownfield sites. In addition, the Chicago Department of Buildings operates two programs that can support brownfield redevelopment. The Abandoned Property Program enables developers to acquire abandoned buildings with real estate taxes and water bills in arrears for at least two years, and either restore or demolish the structures. The Adjacent Neighborhoods Land Acquisition Program helps residents and business owners acquire property adjoining their own for $300. These lots must have a City of Chicago lien on them in order for the City to foreclose and turn the property over. The Chicago Department of Environment performs preliminary reviews of sites for the brownfield program, using records indicating the presence of underground storage tanks, environmental complaints, and reviews of previous uses or current conditions such as evidence of illegal dumping. Based on this review, the brownfields team determines whether or not to proceed with a Phase I environmental assessment, followed by a more detailed Phase II assessment. These assessments are conducted in accordance with the requirements of the State's voluntary cleanup program, so that action at the site later can receive the benefit of a State no-further-remediation letter. Then the department proposes a cleanup strategy and prepares cost estimates for cleanup. The department refines a site cleanup strategy based on the Phase II assessment, determining the cleanup standards that apply to the site using the State's Tiered Approach to Corrective Action Objectives to select standards that are appropriate for the planned future use of the site. The City also works with end users to determine if site improvements, such as buildings and parking lots, can serve as engineered barriers to reduce the amount of contaminated material that must be removed for off- site disposal. As part of its initial brownfields effort, the City targeted four key sites for large industrial park projects, located in North Lawndale, West Pullman, and West Town (including the Kinzie Industrial Corridor). The sites were selected for their redevelopment potential, large size, and proximity to existing highway and rail lines. City Partners with Community Groups Chicago's brownfields staff have strengthened their program through connections to a variety of public and private organizations, including the Metropolitan Planning Council, the Northern Illinois Planning Commission, and many local organizations. In particular, Chicago benefits from partnerships with community-based development groups throughout the City to build capacity for overcoming brownfields issues and spur neighborhood redevelopment. They help provide community residents and organizations with information on site identification, environmental regulations, and community readiness. ------- Chicago's Innovative Financing Chicago has used a host of innovative funding sources to support its brownfield redevelopment projects. The City Treasurer's Office has dedicated $10 million for deposit in banks that lend money to small businesses for preventing pollution, cleaning up sites, or complying with environmental regulations. Partner banks may lend up to $150,000 for assessments, audits, and other brownfield costs. Chicago deposits three dollars in the partner bank for every one dollar it lends to small businesses for environmental projects. The City also has financed brownfields projects with about $1.3 million in litigation settlements; $2 million in general obligation bond proceeds; and more than $4 million in general city funds. Cook County helps with financing as well, reducing the property assessment rate for brownfields to 16 percent of market value for up to three years while cleanup and redevelopment take place, resulting in as much as a 55 percent annual tax savings. The State also provides a tax incentive for sites that are under the State voluntary cleanup program and have received no-further-remediation letters. The tax credit equals 25 percent of outstanding remediation costs, with a $100,000 deductible and a $700,000 cap on eligible costs. This can translate into a savings of up to $40,000 per year, with a maximum total savings of $150,000 per site. In addition, Chicago administers a supplemental environmental project (SEP) on behalf of EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). SEPs are projects conducted by parties found in violation of environmental laws, which help local governments tie together environmental and economic improvements and keep enforcement dollars in the area where violations are committed. For example, the City has used $950,000, received through a DOJ consent decree with Sherwin Williams, for site testing, building demolition, and site cleanup in one of the areas targeted for brownfield redevelopment. The Chicago brownfields program has also benefited from a new Illinois eminent domain law that allows cities to consider the environmental condition of property in determining its fair market value in a condemnation proceeding. This means that Cities can account for the reasonable costs of bringing property into compliance when setting a price, so that they don't have to pay an inflated price for the property and then pay again to clean it up. Contact: Kimberly Worthington Chicago Department of Environment 312-744-9139 kworthington@cityofchicago.org Chicago established its brownfields initiative in 1993, built on a strategy of linking environmental restoration with industrial real estate development to create jobs and generate tax revenue. ------- Revitalizing Southeastern Communities Baltimore, AAD Develops New Tools to Promote Brownfields Redevelopment The City of Baltimore, Maryland is working to clean up and redevelop approximately 1,000 acres of potential brownfields, over 400 of which are located within the City's federal Empowerment Zone. With an array of city, state, and federal support, incentives, innovative practices, and outreach to the community, the City has made tremendous progress in reclaiming these lands. As a result, the City is creating a cleaner environment, expanding job opportunities, increasing the tax base, removing blight, and preserving open space. Since the Baltimore Brownfields Initiative began, more than 30 sites have been assessed through federal, state, local, and private partnerships. In addition to working with EPA, the City partnered with HUD in establishing a loan and grant program, an inventory of sites in the Empowerment Zone, and joint economic planning. The City partnered with the State of Maryland to conduct 20 site assessments and redevelop an industrial site that created 180 new jobs. Since 1996, Baltimore has completed 30 brownfields projects, creating or retaining more than 3,000 jobs and attracting more than $300 million in new investment. One of the more notable projects is the redevelopment of the 1.3 million square foot Montgomery Ward warehouse, now transformed into "Montgomery Park Business Center." Baltimore Development Corporation lined up $8 million in HUD Section 108 financing to assist with cleanup and other upfront costs. As of September 2003, the property accommodates four major office tenants — including the headquarters for the Maryland Department of Environment —which employ about 1,800 persons, many of whom reside in nearby low-income, minority communities. Baltimore's Brownfield Toolbox Baltimore's brownfields program is coordinated by the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), a non-profit corporation chartered by the City of Baltimore to act as its economic development agent. BDC identifies and works to remove barriers to redevelopment, expedite public approvals and permits, and provide information on available sites. Toward these ends, Baltimore has instituted many programs and incentives to help stimulate brownfields cleanup and redevelopment. The Baltimore Brownfields Council was formed to serve as an advisory body and conducts outreach activities to communities. The Council has helped encourage community involvement in the City's brownfields projects. Community organizations active in economic development, environmental cleanup, or job training include Baltimore Civic Works, Southeast Development, Inc., the Council for Economic and Business Opportunity, the Baltimore Urban League, and Jubilee Baltimore. Baltimore has completed 30 brownfield projects, creating or retaining more than 3,000 jobs and attracting more than $300 million in new investment. ------- One of the tools that has proven effective in stimulating cleanup and redevelopment is the $2.5 million Empower Baltimore Brownfields Loan and Grant Program. This is a federally funded program that offers loans to projects within the City's federally recognized empowerment zone. Loan funds can be used to cover the cost of site assessments, remediation, acquisition, demolition, and other predevelopment costs. State brownfields funds from the Maryland Brownfields devitalization Incentive.Program and the Maryland Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund are also frequently employed in closing finance gaps on brownfields projects. BDC is also a recipient of a $1 million EPA Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund grant and several $200,000 Site Assessment grants. BDC has committed $750,000 in local bond funds to supplement and add flexibility to the EPA funds. In 1998, the City also instituted a Brownfields Property Tax Credit for purchases of properties that are eligible for Maryland's brownfield voluntary cleanup program (VCP). Under this program, a tax credit of 50-70 percent of the increase in City property taxes attributable to all improvements to a site after entering the VCP is granted for 5 years, or 10 years if the property is in a recognized Enterprise Zone. The City is also authorized to grant a tax abatement for past taxes on a brownfield site as needed. BDC has also worked closely with the Maryland Department of the Environment, business groups, and environmental groups to craft statutory and administrative improvements to Maryland's brownfields programs. One result is a comprehensive brownfields reform bill that was signed into law in April, 2004. The changes streamline and expand eligibility for the Maryland Voluntary Cleanup Program. Website www.baltimoredevelopment.com/initiatives_brownfields.html Contact: Evans Paull Baltimore Development Corporation 410-837-9305 epaull@baltimoredevelopment.com ------- Revitalizing Southeastern Communities East Palo Alto, CA is Revitalizing Economically Distressed Areas The City of East Palo Alto, California is a small community of approximately 30,000 that is overcoming significant obstacles to revitalization. While not enjoying the economic prosperity of its neighboring communities in Silicon Valley, the City has a proven track record of revitalization success and a solid vision for expanding upon that success. East Palo Alto has the highest levels of unemployment and poverty and the lowest median income in San Mateo County. In addition, the City has struggled to significantly reduce its crime rate, which was one of the highest in the nation in the early 1990s. A major stumbling block to overcoming these problems is the brownfields contamination that impacts a substantia! portion of the City's land, left behind from decades of industrial waste, illegal dumping, and pesticide pollution. Because of this contamination, East Palo Alto suffered from a lack of investment in the transportation, utility, and economic infrastructure necessary to revitalize abandoned and unproductive areas in the community. Despite these obstacles, the City is making great progress. Selected as one of the first 16 "Brownfields Showcase Communities," East Palo Alto is now recognized as a national leader in cleaning up and redeveloping abandoned brownfield areas. East Palo Alto has successfully leveraged federal resources and made great progress toward its redevelopment vision. The following successes demonstrate that the investment of federal resources is paying off: The Gateway 101 Development Project, started in 1996, has leveraged a $2.8 million Economic Development Administration grant and a $3.8 million federal transportation grant into a mixed- use, housing and retail power center. The project includes 129 multifamily units, 221 single- family units (including over 80 below-market-rate units), a Home Depot, a Best Buy, an Office Depot, and has generated nearly 100 new jobs, $2.4-2.7 million in annual revenues, and more than a ten-fold increase in property values. East Palo Alto has built a community health clinic and non-profit center on City-owned lands in the Ravenswood Industrial Area through the support of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The first full-service bank in 15 years opened in East Palo Alto in February 2002. A Starbucks coffeehouse opened in January 2002 as part of a partnership with Earvin "Magic" Johnson's development company to develop Starbucks stores in underserved areas. A Togo's and a Baskin Robins have also opened next door. East Palo Alto has increased its tax base tenfold and reduced its dependence on federal grants from 50 to I percent of its operating budget during the past decade, through the successful redevelopment of the City's brownfields. ------- A luxury Four Seasons Hotel is under construction as part of the City's University Circle redevelopment project. The hotel is expected to generate hundreds of jobs and $1.5 million annually in tax revenues. In the last five years, annual sales tax revenues have increased from $402,000 to $2 million. In two years, over 600 long term jobs have been created in the City. The City has significantly reduced the incidence of crime. The City is now looking to build on this success as it continues to confront its unique challenges and revitalize its community. The City's top priority is the revitalization of the Ravenswood Industrial Area and the adjacent Four Corners area, a combined 130 developable acres. After years of agricultural, commercial, and industrial use, the property is affected by a multitude of toxic substances. However, the City has developed, and is beginning to implement, a strategic plan to clean up and redevelop this area into a mixed-use development and employment center, with up to 2 million square feet of commercial, light manufacturing, and high technology office space, and new medium-density housing nearby. Land owners in the Ravenswood area, many of whom have held property for ten years or more, have formed the Ravenswood Shores Business District, LLC, to coordinate and foster private development in the area. At the core of the redevelopment plan is the City's goal to enhance the community and its livability. As part of this goal, the City will seek to promote the location of environmentally-sensitive businesses, the use of green building practices, and development that enhances and protects the beauty of adjacent resources such as San Francisco Bay, wetlands, and open space areas. The Four Corners portion will become a new town center including civic space, government buildings, and commercial businesses. As Silicon Valley is rapidly running out of housing and developable land, the City is poised to leverage its investment in the Ravenswood Industrial Area to take advantage of the tight real estate market. The City expects that the redevelopment of this area will create thousands of new jobs, generate more than $1 million per year in new tax revenues and help the City to finally share in the prosperity of the region. Contact: Carlos Martinez City of East Palo Alto 650-853-3186 cmartinez@cityofepa.org ------- Revitalizing Southeastern Communities A Brownfields Toolkit Community Outreach and Education Spurs Revitalization in Houston, TX During the economic boom in Houston, Texas, in the 1970s and 80s, many businesses and residents left the downtown area for new developments on the outskirts of the city. For years, the downtown area floundered and, in many places, concerns of contamination at abandoned properties inhibited new development. In 1996, the City received a $200,000 Brownfields Demonstration Pilot grant from the EPA and launched its Brownfields Redevelopment Program as part of an overall urban revitalization initiative. In 2000, the City was selected by EPA as one of the nation's Brownfields Showcase Communities. During its eight-year history, the City's Brownfields Redevelopment Program has focused on redeveloping idle or abandoned properties in the urban core and built one of the nation's most successful brownfields programs. To date, the City of Houston's Brownfields Redevelopment Program has fostered the reuse of 550 acres of brownfields and leveraged the investment of $720 million in redevelopment projects. The Program has helped to create more than 2,560 new full time jobs and return $1.6 million in delinquent taxes and $604,250 per year in property taxes to local government entities. The Program has completed 12 projects and has 16 sites in various stages of assessment, remediation, and redevelopment. One of the keys to Houston's success has been its effective strategies for conducting outreach to the community and involving community leaders in the decision making process. Because Houston has no zoning, industrial and manufacturing sites are interspersed with residential neighborhoods and businesses. As a result, when industrial or manufacturing sites were abandoned, they had a tremendous impact on Houston's urban neighborhoods. They caused blight and disinvestment, posed threats to public health and hazards to children, led to illegal dumping, and provided areas for criminal activity. Thus, Houston's leaders knew that establishing strong tools for soliciting and encouraging community input was critical to the success of the brownfields program. When the brownfields program was formed, the City also formed the Land Redevelopment Committee (LRC), a group of community and business leaders charged with advising the Brownfields Redevelopment Program. Members of the LRC are appointed by the Mayor and include experts in community planning, environmental law, clean-up, engineering, finance, insurance, and environmental justice. The LRC has helped the City develop criteria for prioritizing sites, brokered redevelopment deals, and conducted outreach and education to the community. The LRC has monthly public meetings and gives presentations to community-based organizations, community development corporations, and faith-based organizations. In addition to the efforts of the LRC, the Houston Brownfields Redevelopment Program holds a brownfields workshop every year for the community. These workshops provide an opportunity for The City's leaders knew that establishing strong tools for soliciting and encouraging community input was critical to the success of the brownfields program. ------- property owners, developers, community groups, and other stakeholders to learn about the City's brownfields program, the Texas Voluntary Cleanup program, tools and resources for brownfields redevelopment, financing, and other brownfields topics. The workshops are well attended by both Houston stakeholders and folks from other Texas communities that want to learn from Houston's experience. Houston's efforts to involve the community have resulted in many successful projects, from the new home of the Houston Astros to a new downtown aquarium and restaurant complex, and many others. However, perhaps the best example of the benefits of this approach was the development of affordable senior housing on a former truck maintenance yard. Located in Houston's East End, this 3.1 acre brownfields property was abandoned in 1979 and sat idle for 17 years. It became an illegal dumping ground for trash and other debris and came to be known as the East End Dump. Community frustration over the blighted property and a near kidnapping at the site convinced the owners to seek a developer for the property. The Latino Learning Center, a local community development group which had been struggling to find a place to build much needed affordable senior housing and a community center, found out about the site and worked with the Houston Brownfields Program and the Land Redevelopment Committee to conduct a site assessment. The LRC educated the Center about the brownfields program and helped clear the way for the transfer of the property to the Center by convincing the owners of the site to enroll the site in the Texas Voluntary Cleanup Program. When the cleanup was completed in 1998, the site was donated to the Center. Construction of the Senior Housing center, with 65 attractive units of housing for the under-served, elderly population of Houston's East End, was completed in 2000. The Latino Learning Center's senior housing project is a demonstration of Houston's ability to bring together community leaders and private property owners, educate them about brownfields, and turn a blighted, contaminated property into a new development that fulfills a critical community need. In addition, the success of this project has led to plans to redevelop an adjacent site into a Seniors' Day and Health Care Center and a 5,500 square foot, community center where local students can attend classes in English-as-a-Second-Language, Math, Science, Computer Science, Secretarial Studies, and Air Conditioning. Houston's focus on community outreach and education has played a critical role in the phenomenal success of its brownfield program and has created a model for other communities to follow. Contact: David Reel City of Houston, Brownfields Redevelopment Program 713-837-9076 david.reel@cityofhouston.net ------- Revitalizing Southeastern Communities A Brownfields Toolkit Emeryville, CA Turns Community Around with Area-Wide Brownfields Strategy Once a manufacturing town, Emeryville, California suffered severe blight as much of its local industry abandoned the area in the 1970s. By 1996, this predominantly low-income, minority community on the San Francisco Bay was blighted by 234 acres of vacant or underutilized property and 213 acres with suspected soil or groundwater contamination. Over 20 percent of the City's non-residential property was vacant and over 40 percent was underutilized. The extent of the contamination and sheer number of brownfields imposed significant transaction, cleanup, time, and regulatory costs on any new development. As a result, risk-averse investors were reluctant to invest in the area. It is estimated that the lack of investment cost Emeryville $13.3 million in tax revenues and 450 jobs between 1991 and 1996 alone. The City used a $200,000 EPA brownfields grant to turn the situation around. In order to address the contamination concerns of potential developers, the City developed a comprehensive, area-wide approach to environmental cleanup, rather than a site specific approach. This allowed the City to collect environmental data on whole areas of the City that were marred by brownfields, and then target cleanup and revitalization efforts accordingly. The City incorporated hydrogeologic, soil, and groundwater information for more than 2,100 properties into a geographical information system (GIS) that also includes economic, land use, and zoning information. The system was then made available to the public via a "one stop shop" on the internet. This allowed potential developers, landowners, and other interested parties to locate a site in the GIS database and quickly pull up essential information regarding the site. Available information includes owner name and contact information, size, soil contamination level and types, groundwater contamination level and types, zoning data, groundwater monitoring locations, current land use, land use restrictions, and more. Users can search for a site based on a variety of identifiers and then print out a list of sites meeting those criteria. This one-stop shop has helped address stakeholder concerns about locating in Emeryville and has helped to quickly transform Emeryville into a center of technology, research, office, and retail. A diverse mix of housing, commercial, industrial, and retail developments have been built or planned for Emeryville. To date the one-stop shop initiative, in conjunction with a variety of financial incentives, regulatory streamlining, and a comprehensive groundwater management plan, has leveraged over $644 million in redevelopment and construction dollars. Planned developments in the area are expected to generate 8,400 jobs over the next 20 years. ------- The Chiron Life Sciences Center, a campus of twelve new buildings to be built on a 25-acre brownfield over the next two decades, is one major achievement of Emeryville's revitalization program. The Chiron Corporation, the second largest biotechnology firm in the country, is redeveloping a site that historically housed transformer maintenance and petroleum research facilities. One building is on the site of a former Pacific Gas & Electric materials distribution facility, with extensive PCB contamination. Emeryville assisted Chiron in assembling the project site and pledged 30 years of tax increments for extraordinary development expenses such as remediation, infrastructure improvements, and community amenities. In exchange, Chiron paid for these costs in advance and is contributing to community facilities and services. Chiron has qualified for more than $1 I million in future reimbursements. Over a 20-year period, Chiron plans to build 2 million square feet of research and office space and employ approximately 4,200 people. The company completed construction of its first 280,000 square foot building in 1998, at a cost of $190 million, housing more than 500 scientists and support staff. Chiron will also construct a park called Horton Landing between the company's campus and the railroad tracks, connecting to the Doyle Street Greenway. By utilizing modern GIS technology and a variety of financial and regulatory incentives, Emeryville has emerged from its dark days as an obsolete industrial center to a bright new future with new businesses, employment opportunities, increased tax revenues, and new services for its residents. Contact: Ignacio Dayrit City of Emeryville 510-596-4356 idayrit@ci.emeryville.ca.us ------- Revitalizing Southeastern Communities A Brownfields Toolkit Technical Assistance Helps Small Businesses Revitalize Brownfields in King County /City of Seattle, WA: In 1994, the Metropolitan King County Council created the Duwamish Coalition to "preserve and reclaim industrial land for the purpose of expanding the manufacturing and industrial job base, and protecting and enhancing the natural environment." This broad-based public-private partnership led to the creation of the King County / City of Seattle Brownfields Program, which was selected as one of the 16 original brownfields showcase communities in 1998. The Duwamish Coalition and the King County / Seattle Brownfields Program created the Environmental Extension Service (EES) to help local businesses identify and cost-effectively solve environmental problems. Modeled after the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Extension Service, EES provides free technical assistance in brownfields assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment to businesses, nonprofit organizations and municipalities in King County. EES assistance includes limited Phase One environmental assessments that involve research on past and present uses, meetings with interested parties, site visits, review of existing environmental information and determination of next steps. EES also provides assistance with navigating the regulatory and technical requirements of the cleanup process, consultant referrals, interpreting consultant reports, identifying and leveraging resources, and developing cleanup options. In the early days of the program EES staff spent numerous hours conducting outreach to potential clients, including door to door visits and attending meetings with local businesses. The results of the EES have been remarkable. Since 1999, they have helped complete 50 site assessments, leverage more than $10 million in private and non-profit cleanup and redevelopment funds, create 260 temporary and 210 permanent jobs, and save local businesses more than $250,000 in consulting costs. The EES has been particularly effective in helping small businesses and non-profit organizations navigate the challenges of cleaning up and reusing their brownfields. Examples of successful projects include: EES helped the owner of a family business who wished to retire assess and clean up his auto wrecking yard and sell the property for redevelopment into a gas station/mini-mart. EES helped a small marine boat-building business relocate and expand its operation on to a brownfield, by providing strategic advice that helped save time and money and gave the owner comfort that he could complete the transition successfully. The business was able to retain 63 jobs and create 20 new ones through this expansion. EES helped the owner of a small bakery who had purchased an old dry cleaners find an attorney who was able to secure cleanup funds from the former cleaners' insurance company. The site was cleaned up in 2003 and the bakery opened in 2004. ------- Contact: Lucy Auster King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks 206-296-8476 lucy.auster@metrokc.gov ------- |